10


  
 I am coming like a Swede in the night
 to Henry's Diner   (or not coming)
 coming like Ava Gardner   with a spring
 in her step   (and double-cross in her heart)

  
 to the shores of great rivers   dancing
 with thieves   in gilded armor (and lead)
 I am coming like   Vietnam-bred
 hootchie-cootchie man   breathing

  
 the same air (brotherhood   cosmos)
 as a summer cicada   hidden in a crown
 of tupelo trees   drowning (almost)
 in their drone   beyond reason

  
 coming in the sweet child-food
 of Melchizedek   that bees make
 to temper the blood (just as a book
 tempers hot iron paws   along the road)

  
 to restore you   like the sun
 and prepare the way (here it gets
 omen-like)   for the drama   (the set-
 up)   in a garden   of stone   manes

  
 where children gather   to appease
 the dead ancestors   ranged
 under the prairie   waiting   red-
 eyed   all night long   for the wise

  
 footstep   the light wheeling
 pivot   the morning
 birth-rite   (swing
 as you may   to leeward   (heeling

  
 highway crust   (Hiawatha


     
                               6.6.99